hello Blog. I am Jonathan. Who are you? Oh that was a stupid question. I have never actually had a blog or anything but this is neat. I finally got my driver's license and I took my little brother to Fred Meyer today. That was interesting. At Fred Meyer, as we were looking at things I ran into a family of French speaking people. I couldn't quite tell at first what they were speaking but finally asked in French if they knew how to speak French and that got an almost instantaneous reaction from the youngest as they were wandering off. He affirmed my belief and it was actually exciting being on my own (fine my little brother was with me) and meeting new people who could speak French. Not many Americans can speak French unfortunately but quite a few are learning Spanish. On our way out of the parking lot a siren began blaring. I was totally surprised and a bit worried especially when three cop cars pulled around the corner and into the parking lot. They didn't seem rushed but then I didn't really want to find out what they were doing. I was actually afraid they were going to make everyone stay in the parking lot and figure out if anyone saw anything. That would take hours and then my little brother would be complaining and I would be tired out and sick of telling the cops I was only trying to drive home. I have had one experience with cops before and that was not too fun. It was in Texas and Texans, no offense, just don't believe it is possible to survive without air conditioning. I would like to point out that my family has lived in Africa for 7 years with no air conditioning and we are just fine. In fact if you simply lose the air conditioning and get used to the heat, imagine the drop in electric bills. You would then only have to worry about heating bills. Well we were in Texas and we had just returned a couple days before from Africa. We went to Kroger's grocery store and walked in and spent ages in the store. This store was no ordinary store. No sir (or ma'am). It had kill-the-kid-who-just-came-back-from-Africa conditioning. I spent ages in there feeling like the wooly mammoths must have felt like when the ice age came in a flash and froze them. So the next day, when we had to return to the same store for more groceries I was no fool. I told my parents I would wait outside in the nice warm weather of a nice sunny summer day. I waited and waited and one of the store employees came and asked if I needed something. I said I was just waiting for my parents in the store. I said hello to some people and finally dad came out. We walked to the car and I noticed some cop cars pulling towards us. Suddenly one of the cops got out and asked me if I was the "black male" in the floppy hat who had been waiting in front of the store. I actually consider myself more white than black but I am a combination and some people can't tell the difference I guess. At this point in my life I also had a floppy hat that was falling apart and looked really rugged, which is half the reason I wore it all the time. We managed to explain what we had been doing and the cop let us go and told us to take care after we explained we had just returned to Africa. We found out from him that someone had called the cops saying that there were two suspicious men hanging around the parking lot. I can't believe it! Simply waiting outside pacing back and forth saying a friendly hello to a few people here and there and someone called the cops! They didn't even know the whole situation! There was another guy who looked like a rough guy. He was looking for jumper cables. I can't believe the nerve of some people! I sure didn't appreciate that though. Maybe it did look suspicious but I had already been asked what I was doing and had replied that I was waiting for my parents. Oh well. Another funny story to tell to my kids and grandkids someday. To this day my dad still teases me about my floppy hat. One thing is sure. Don't go shopping in Kroger's down in Texas without an arctic survival kit. I will have to figure out how to post pictures on the internet. That will be interesting.